It’s taken Deontay Wilder quite some time to come out and speak about the Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou fight and its stunning outcome. Wilder, beaten only by Fury, says he didn’t actually watch the fight (neither did too many people in the US, hence those poor pay-per-view numbers), but he says he had a lot of people messaging him about the fight.
Ngannou came within a whisker of beating Fury as we know, with the former UFC heavyweight champ, who was having his pro boxing debut, dropping Fury and also beating him up at points in the fight. In fact, plenty of people felt on the night, and still feel now, that Ngannou did win the fight. Wilder says people spoke to him after the poor display by Fury, telling him that, ‘Maybe he [Fury] did cheat’ [in your fight.]’
We all know the accusations Wilder made about Fury, about his gloves being loaded, and all the rest. And it seems Wilder feels the fact that Fury failed to do anything like a job in Ngannou has got people thinking that Fury did indeed get some illegal assistance in his fight or fights with him.
“I didn’t even get to watch the fight,” Wilder said of Fury-Ngannou when speaking with Blue Blood Sports. “I had a lot of texts and people calling me about it, especially when he got dropped. After the fight, a lot of people were figuring out what was going on – [with people saying to me], ‘Maybe he did cheat [when he fought you], maybe he did have something in his gloves.’ All these things are coming up now. Everybody’s saying he [Fury] lost and, ‘Deontay, we need you back,’ and how boring boxing is, the heavyweight division is crumbling and falling. I’m coming.”
We have yet to see who/where/when Wilder will fight again, but there has been some talk of him perhaps facing Ngannou himself. That would be one massively fascinating fight, for sure. But Wilder clearly cannot let the whole ‘he cheated’ thing go with Fury, and the former WBC heavyweight champ if you asked him, would likely tell you that the only reason he was beaten by Fury (twice) is because Fury cheated and got away with it.
And now, according to Wilder, plenty of other people are looking closely at the Fury-Wilder fights all over again due to Fury’s tough, hard, and ultimately lucky night in Riyadh.
Wilder is right about one thing, though, and that’s the fact that we fans want to see him back in the ring and soon.
